Working to help municipalities identify, address pension challenges

RI Gen. Treasurer Gina M. Raimondo
Posted 5/31/12

The Rhode Island Retirement Security Act (RIRSA) was an important step toward providing retirement security for our public employees and putting our state on a path to prosperity, while significantly …

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Working to help municipalities identify, address pension challenges

Posted

The Rhode Island Retirement Security Act (RIRSA) was an important step toward providing retirement security for our public employees and putting our state on a path to prosperity, while significantly improving the funding status of our state pension system and saving taxpayers approximately $4 billion over the next two decades.

The state pension crisis presented a difficult set of choices and required tough decisions, but bold changes were necessary to secure Rhode Island’s future and ensure pension benefits are there for our valued public employees. The General Assembly membership courageously voted overwhelmingly to pass RIRSA.

Another pension crisis looms, however, in the 36 locally-administered pension plans that are independent of the state system. Swiftly placing these plans on a healthy path is critical to the future prosperity of our state.

Collectively, the locally-administered plans have a reported unfunded liability of approximately $2.1 billion, and funding level of only 40 percent. These figures are unacceptable to the retirees and employees who rely on their pensions, and to local taxpayers who face escalating costs.

Unlike the state-administered system, which is governed by statute, most of these local plans are determined by collectively-bargained contracts. The local plans each have unique situations, varying widely in their design, funding status and membership.

RIRSA addressed municipalities in two important ways. First, the reforms to the state-administered system will save cities and towns about $1 billion over the next two decades as well as about $100 million during fiscal year 2013.

Second, RIRSA set out a path with requirements for cities and towns to follow as they work through reforming their own plans.

As treasurer, I have no specific authority over these plans, but I am fully committed to addressing the challenges associated with the locally-administered pension plans and to serving as a resource to cities and towns as they develop comprehensive solutions.

Since January, I have been working with municipal leaders to share guidance on best practices and discuss how they can structure their process and use their actuaries. Treasury launched an online toolkit, based on the RIRSA process, which municipalities can utilize as they assess their situation and craft their solutions. We also hosted two working sessions to help guide their work. Treasury’s door remains open.

RIRSA appears to be working. Municipal leaders are meeting the deadlines, analyzing their plans and in some cases already taking action. The April 1 deadline for experience studies and revised actuarial assumptions was met by almost all locally-administered plans. Municipalities with plans in “critical status” are notifying all recipients that they are members in an underfunded plan, and the work of developing comprehensive remediation plans is underway.

As municipal leaders concentrate on replicating the efforts and process that led to RIRSA for their own struggling pension plans, your representatives and senators in the General Assembly should be commended for providing municipal relief under RIRSA and laying out a process for communities to create fair and balanced retirement systems that provide affordability, sustainability and security to retirees, employees and taxpayers. Also commend your local government leaders for taking action and continue to encourage them through this challenging process.

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  • Serpico

    My commendation goes to FOP President of Lodge 7in Warwick, Officer Peter Johnston for his hard work and persistence in bringing the delema regarding the unfunded pension 1 to a close. His resolve and dedication resulted in an appropriate conclusion exceptible by Warwick's Mayor and the members of the Fraternal Order Of Police.

    It is not unusual for the Warwick police to do what is beneficial for the citizens of Warwick. In fact this is the second time in a matter of months that

    both the police and fire department members relinguished a pay increase to help Mayor avoid a tax increase .

    I also want to answer to the statement made by Mayor Scott Avedision that it is the Pension 1, the oldest pension, that is causing the greatest

    problem....must I remind the Mayor that it was his colleagues of prior administrations that allowed the pension to continue unfunded while knowing

    that the city was withholdng it's contbutions.Were did these monies go ? The members, police and firefighters, always contributed their fair share.

    Members of Pension 1 the oldest and smallest of the retired members plans receive no COLAS, and no medical benefits.Upon reaching age 65

    they go on medicare. Many, if not most, of these members are old and sickly now and depend on their pensions to pay for their ever growing medical costs even with medicare the out of pocket costs are high. I myself suffer with reocurring prostate cancer and know the expense.

    I want the citizens of Warwick to know that they have always had, and it still remains the finest police department in the state bar none, and it was the older members of the department that should receive the credit for making it so.

    Lieut. Robert White - Retired.

    Wednesday, August 1, 2012 Report this